[Bio] Codename: Rockwood

[I apologize if the history section turned into a short story, I really enjoy developing the story for my character and brevity is not one of my strong suites]

Codename: Rockwood

Age: 32
Race: Blood Elf
Gender: Male

Class: Rogue – Assassin

Real name: Gonderyn Acharn

Operative Codename: Rockwood

Language: Thalassian, Common, and Orcish

Faction: Horde - Sin'dorei

Likes/Dislikes – He likes studying the history and discovering the secrets that history forgot. He also likes taking thing easy and keeping the attitude light. He hates people who are too serious on constant bases. He also hates people who act rashly in or out of battle. Due to recent history, he is also very wary of humans and views them as easily corruptible.

Strengths/Weakness – He is a quick analyzer of people and situations. While at work, he is efficient at his duties almost to a fault. Yet due to recent traumatic events He suffers from haunting memories and slow to fight unless threat of deadly force is upon him and his company. However these traumatic memories cause him to give over to his hedonistic desires of eating, drinking, and flirting with women because it helps him forget.

Personality: Gonderyn is a kind person at his core. Yet years of war against one enemy or another had added quite a bit of layers. He is also very deadly when he enters battle. A dark part of him enjoys killing. It seems almost automatic yet pleasurable to kill others.
However, this part of his personality plus a traumatic event lead to him developing haunting memories. These haunting memories lead to some dramatic personality changes. He has become more paranoid, distrusting, and started to embrace a hedonistic personality/lifestyle because the drink, desserts, and dames are the only things that make the haunting memories go away.

Appearance: Gonderyn is a young elf with dark blond hair that can almost pass for brown. He wears leather armor of various browns and dark oranges. It is capped with a brown armored hood which is pointed in the back. He also dons a matching dark orange and brown cloak with gold accents. He prefers his new set of daggers made of the fiery steel mined from the ore of the molten front during the firelands invasion. The daggers were intended to be a gift but instead serve as a grim reminder. Yet despite the fine quality of his armor and weapons, He much rather prefers to wear his favorite orange and black shirt with black pants to the local tavern. While at the academy, his first kiss told him that he looked good in orange. Orange has been his favorite color ever since.

History

Around a decade ago, Gonderyn started training to be a scout in the Farstrider organization. He was in his third year of training when the undead prince attacked his homeland. Due to his status as a trainee, he was tasked to help a group of women and children flee into the safety of the depths of Silvermoon City. After the scourge invasion, everything in Quel'Thalas changed including Gonderyn. He like all Sin’dorei had lost most of their families. His mother had perished with most of Farstriders, when they defended the gates of Quel’Thalas. His father died with King Anasterian protecting the Isle of Quel'Danas. His brother soon disappeared with Prince Kael'thas to Outland to never been seen again. Gonderyn was alone, but this only made him more determined to resume his training. All of the newly named blood elves mourned, but Gonderyn wanted to put his mourning to good use.

After the dust had settled, there became a need for soldiers who deal in secrets and kill in the shadows. Farstrider rangers who were experts in stealth, subterfuge, and were quick with blades were selected. Yet the Farstriders were stretched thin as it was so trainees were considered. Gonderyn had excelled in his scout training. He was often praised for his ability to analyze situations quickly in the field. So when he was approached to train to become an agent that would protect Quel'Thalas from enemies domestic and far, Gonderyn jumped at the chance. Being young he was brimming with zeal to keep his people safe. So he started his training to be agent for Quel'Thalas. When Sylvanas required sin’dorei forces to go to Northrend, Gonderyn was sent as a part of the forces requested.

Northrend marked his commission as a full agent and as such his first time on his own. As a full agent, he received a codename. Codenames effectively replaced the agents own name. This was to protect the families of agents, if any was ever caught. He was Gonderyn only to his deceased family, now to everyone else he was Rockwood. Mission documents would not even have a name just a symbol of a tree standing next to a large rock.

He had been on a squad for the entirety of the outland campaign and the Sunwell invasion. His squad had been comprised of 3 trainees and a seasoned veteran captain who was in command of the squad. Gonderyn ….erm Rockwood had become close to his squad captain. She was known as the mistress of blades among the Sin’dorei forces. She was one of the few seasoned Farstrider captains that preferred blades over bows and was one of the first Farstrider captains picked for the new Assassin agency of Quel'Thalas.

As in everything, Rockwood excelled during the Northrend campaign. He had been apart of the final raid on the Icecrown citadel. His mission was to make sure no dark fallen escaped the citadel and he enjoyed completing his mission. When the cataclysm hit, Rockwood was assigned the duty of ending any Sin’dorei traitors that fallen prey to the corruption of the Twilight Hammer. This was some of the darkest missions, yet it was even more darkly enjoyable for Rockwood. He enjoyed killing traitors. It was because of traitors that Quel'Thalas had fallen to Arthas and Rockwood would do anything to put an end to another corrupted being.

Since the graduation of his squad to full agents, Rockwood’s old mentor had become freelance for the better pay. She had begun taking contracts from the highest bidder and because of such he had not seen her since his promotion ceremony. It had been almost a year and half since he had seen her and because of all that had happened with Northrend and the cataclysm he had desperately wanted to catch-up with her. Through correspondence, he arranged to meet her in Dalaran after his next mission. She agreed as to she would be in Northrend on a contract of her own around the same time.

Rockwood’s mission in Northrend was particularly important this time. Horde agents had discovered that since Thrall’s fight with Twilight hammer in Northrend, the cult had hired assassins to kill the former warcheif. Rockwood’s mission was to scout out a meeting between the newly hired assassins and the new head of the twilight hammer cult in dragonblight. Afterward, he would meet his mentor and give her a set of daggers made from the molten steel mined during the Firelands invasion. They were a sort of thank you present to his mentor.

Yet it was this mission that would shake him. As Rockwood scouted the meeting, he saw one face that shocked him down to his core. His former mentor was among the most deadly of Azeroth at the Twilight Hammer’s bounty meeting. Afterwards, he tracked her to her mount and confronted her. He tried pleading with her but the confrontation ended bloody. Yet Rockwood was not the victor. His mentor had no remorse and demonstrated her superior skills that almost killed him. The only thing that saved Rockwood was a well timed explosive that set off an avalanche that safely buried him. After Rockwood came to, he made the slow trek back to Dalaran. The only thing he had to keep him warm during his frozen retreat was the molten steel daggers he had bought.

After this event, Rockwood was never the same. He was shaken and haunted by the memories of the confrontation with his former mentor and the similarity between her remorselessness and his during previous kills. During his recovery, he received word that she was killed during the raid on Deathwing. The fact he could never save her now haunted him even more. Rockwood’s body may have recovered quickly but his mind did not. After he left the care of the priests, Rockwood went home to Silvermoon City. There he could regularly be found at the Silvermoon City Inn where he drank all the alcohol he could find, ate all the desserts he could stomach, and flirted with every female being that happened through.

However, one day a pandaren came to Silvermoon City. His name was Sho the Wise and he was a Huojin monk. Rockwood and Sho met at the Silvermoon City Inn over Sho’s favorite activity: drinking. Rockwood and Sho developed a friendship. This friendship lead to a trust. Sho was the first person Rockwood had remotely trusted since the event. Yet over the weeks Sho noticed that his friend’s drinking, eating, and flirting where a mask for a deeper unseen wound. The next day, Sho invited Rockwood to train with him. Rockwood accepted only due to his friendship with the monk.

The next day, they trained; and day after that and the day after that. Rockwood enjoyed the pureness of Sho. Through these training sessions, Sho taught Rockwood a key principal: It is not who you fight or how you fight, It is why you fight that matters, It is that you fight to protect the ones you love, to help those in need, and protect the way of life that your people cherish. With this Rockwood rediscovered his purpose in fighting, in serving his nation, in being an assassin for Quel'Thalas. Now Rockwood sets out again. His memories still haunt him, Ale still comforts him, and the ladies still refuse him, but his purpose is renewed. He now sets out to protect his family and friends, help those in need, and to stop any force that would seek to end the Sin’dorei.

This, I like. You got rid of the lore-bendy parts of the Bio and created a unique character, really good work, and very solid in timeline and logic. (something I say rarely.)

But it wouldn't be me if I didn't have some little remarks. First would be a family name. Even if he doesn't use it anymore he did have one. Also, from my calculations one of your paragraphs should say 12 years ago, and your character should be a couple years older, but since being exact on the year is nearly impossible , we can let that slip. Also you have no mention of his family. Did they all survive the Scourge Wars? How are they now, does he still have contact? Those things need clarification.

One thing about his personality, the Betrayal of his former mentor did not make him distrustful in any way? It would be a logical development for me.

And last and in this case least indeed: You misspelled Sylvanas. While not bad at all that typo makes me cringe so pleeease fix it.

Apart from those really nice character. I had a casual pre-Mists RP in mind I wanted to do for some time, that could use an assassin or two, maybe you'd fit in there.

All in all I don't think I can add much to this that Khorianas has yet to say, except that you mention he was part of the final raid on Icecrown Citadel. Please tell me that doesn't include the actual killing of any named NPC's, since that's very much taboo. Being part of the assault is fine but again going in and killing stuff was for an elite group of adventurers (who we can't say we were) and not the army.

Originally Posted by Khorianas

But it wouldn't be me if I didn't have some little remarks. First would be a family name. Even if he doesn't use it anymore he did have one. Also, from my calculations one of your paragraphs should say 12 years ago, and your character should be a couple years older, but since being exact on the year is nearly impossible , we can let that slip. Also you have no mention of his family. Did they all survive the Scourge Wars? How are they now, does he still have contact? Those things need clarification.

I have a little trick that I use for these exact situations. I never really put down specific dates like that. I always give ballpark summaries like "about a decade later..." This allows me to edit my character's age slightly and not have to go into the bio to change every other number, as well as minimizes chronological inconsistencies.

All in all I don't think I can add much to this that Khorianas has yet to say, except that you mention he was part of the final raid on Icecrown Citadel. Please tell me that doesn't include the actual killing of any named NPC's, since that's very much taboo. Being part of the assault is fine but again going in and killing stuff was for an elite group of adventurers (who we can't say we were) and not the army.

I have a little trick that I use for these exact situations. I never really put down specific dates like that. I always give ballpark summaries like "about a decade later..." This allows me to edit my character's age slightly and not have to go into the bio to change every other number, as well as minimizes chronological inconsistencies.

No, the only thing he did at icecrown was kill the undead elves ie dark fallen. No named mobs, no bosses, just reanimated blood elves. None were to be left alive or undead alive. The elite group of adventures took care of the rest. His goal was to make sure no dark fallen escaped. I will go back add that detail.

I have noticed some misspellings and grammar mistakes myself. I will go back and correct them tonight as well as look at the dates and times as well. I tried to stick to the unofficial timeline on wowpedia.org as best I could. I tried to make him 23 at the time of the scourge attack with each expansion being a year. Also if anyone has a WoW spell check add-on for Chrome or Firefox let me know LoL

The Name is fine, not every name has to fit the clichée naming conventions.
Making him the sole survivor of his family is also alright. Since 90% of the blood elves died.

On topic of the distrustfulness, you could have gone with him not getting paranoid, by giving his mentor's betrayal some kind of excuse. Like the fact that the whisperings of the Twilight Hammer can easily corrupt and she was working in dark areas anyways or something along the line. It was merely a suggestion or question on my part why it didn't affect you character that way. This is just to clarify, I don't want to put words in you mouth and give you character a personality treat you don't agree with.

The Name is fine, not every name has to fit the clichée naming conventions.
Making him the sole survivor of his family is also alright. Since 90% of the blood elves died.

On topic of the distrustfulness, you could have gone with him not getting paranoid, by giving his mentor's betrayal some kind of excuse. Like the fact that the whisperings of the Twilight Hammer can easily corrupt and she was working in dark areas anyways or something along the line. It was merely a suggestion or question on my part why it didn't affect you character that way. This is just to clarify, I don't want to put words in you mouth and give you character a personality treat you don't agree with.

Thanks and I actually meant to add that part of his personality, but in my attempt to not include every minor detail I forgot
some things I wanted to put in. I like this character so much that it could turn into an actual short story in no time. The detail
of the parents were also something I wanted to put in but forgot due to trying to keep it short.
I enjoy the feedback for the character.